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Monday, June 10, 2013

Math Meets Geography (Road Trip Project Revisited)

After EOI testing was finished, I still wanted to have my students do lots of math. However, the end of the year brings with it lots of activities, field trips, and missing students. So, I decided to use this opportunity to go back and fit in some activities that I didn't have time to do when I originally taught some concepts.

I taught ratios and proportions to my Algebra 1 students very early in the year. Looking back, I think I rushed through this topic too fast. Next year, I will probably double the time I spend on this topic!

During my student teaching in 8th grade, I wrote a Road Trip project for my students to complete. The original project was 3 days long. For my Algebra 1 students, I chose to only do Day 1 of this project.

The task is simple. Given a map of the United States, plan a road trip to visit 5 cities. Using ratios and proportions, calculate the total distance traveled. Students need a copy of the map, worksheet, and a ruler. I wrote more about this project here.

Road Trip Project

Since I had already done this project with 8th graders, I thought my Algebra 1 students would be able to whiz right through it. I was wrong. I had to teach many of my students how to read a ruler. Rounding to the nearest quarter inch was a disaster. And, the questions students asked me made me feel more like a geography teacher than a math teacher.

These are actual conversations I had with my Algebra 1 students during this activity.

Me: Class, today we are going on a road trip. If we're going on a road trip, that means we will be traveling on...
Class: Roads!
Me: Yes, so that means we can't travel to...
Class: Hawaii
Student 1: Why can't you drive to Hawaii?
Me: Hawaii is an island. That means it is surrounded by water.
Student 2: Why does Hawaii look so weird?
Custodian who just happens to be emptying the trash at this point: Hawaii is a series of small islands.
Student 3: Do you mean you can't drive between the little islands?
Custodian: No. When I was in Hawaii, we traveled between the islands by taking ferries.

I used your road trip project this year with my pre-algebra students. Thank you for sharing this. I too was surprised at how many students had difficulty using a ruler to measure to the nearest quarter inch. :)

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I am a high school math teacher in the tiny town of Drumright, OK. If you can't already tell from the title of my blog, I LOVE teaching math. I also love foldables, interactive notebooks, and origami. My favorite number is pi. My world revolves around Jesus, my family, my church family, and my students.